Drabbles, Shorts and Themes
by potterfield
Summary: An assorted compilation of drabbles, shorts and themed fics written for The Houses Competition
1. Bonus One (Slytherin)

**BONUS 1**

 **Slytherin**

Severus' Mother dies during his 6th year, and the Dark Lord ends up paying for her funeral, showing Severus the only true kindness he's ever known from adults his whole life, leading him to kill his muggle father and accept the Dark Mark in gratitude to the man who made him feel like he was worth something.

 **As usual, you must choose a prompt.**

[Speech] "I never said I hate you. I _do_ hate you, but I never said so."

[Speech] "Wait! Don't you want to know my response?" "I already know what you'll say."

[Object] A small box

[Word] Perfection

[Word] Oblivious

[Emotion] Admiration

[Weather] Cloudy with a chance of rain

[Last line] He/She/They never did know what happened to her/him/it.

[Event] Graduation

[Action] Dislocating a joint

* * *

Spinner's End is a street on which the childhood home of Severus Snape is located. It is stated to be one of several streets lined with deserted brick houses and broken streetlamps, near a dirty river and an abandoned mill with a tall chimney. It is located in Cokeworth.

Severus, clothed in his dark cloak and slacks blended into the tenebrosity of the night. Bracing himself against the cold wind, he wrapped his cloak around him as he walked along the grimy street of Spinner's End. He bore a mask of indifference that hid the crashing waves of uncertainty underneath. His mind drifted back to the funeral.

The day was actually quite calm, he'd noticed, completely contrasting his inner storm. His father, a sick excuse of human, had brought his mother to the point where she just broke. When the news reached Severus, he had bawled. He had stood in his dorm, never feeling more alone and just sobbed. Pain engulfed his mind like a black ocean of suffering, ruthless and unrelenting.

The taunts were public, private, everywhere. Those sadistic smiles he gave her, the things he wanted from her, just, simply the way he treated her angered him. If his father was standing in front of him, Severus had no idea what he would have done to the man.

He treated her as if she was a bird, caging her, asking her to get rid of her 'freakiness', the only thing that made her different. He watched her, her spirit slipping away, a slow, excruciating death. She had taken her own life, but there was only one man to blame. Tobias Snape.

Severus was utterly dumbfounded when he learned that Voldemort, _Lord Voldemort,_ had agreed to pay for his mother's funeral. It was impressive and he could say with confidence that she had never looked more tranquil. Her eyes were wide open, emotionless and staring into his although the small, content smile of hers hadn't escaped his notice. She was happy, she was free and as long as she was happy, he couldn't have cared less. Her dark eyes stared back at him and he moved his hand in one swift motion, closing the eyes that mirrored his forever.

The funeral was grand; the whole of his town was invited and the Death-Eaters had arrived as well, the hundred people or so all dressed in black. It was sort of beautiful, in a macabre manner, hundreds of people who couldn't have cared less about her but had all come because "She was such a nice woman, that Eileen," and it just wouldn't do to miss the opportunity to pay her their respects.

When his mother's coffin was lowered into the ground, sealing her away from the rest of the world for an eternity to come, people began leaving, one by one, family by family until the whole graveyard was empty. Only then, Severus had let his mask slip. He'd talked to his mother's gravestone, all day and only once the sun had completely set did he leave to complete the job.

He was brimming with gratitude for the Dark Lord and was ready to do anything. So when Voldemort had asked him to kill his father as "proof of his loyalty", he couldn't have been happier. It was such a simple task; he would do it in a heartbeat. He couldn't have cared if he tried. And so, that brought him to Spinner's End, to his childhood home, where his good-for-nothing father still lived. When he reached the door, Severus paused, uncertain once again. It was not that he had the slightest ounce of pity for his father, it was the risk of getting caught. Severus rid his mind of the thoughts. He had the Dark Lord's protection, after all.

When he entered the house, the first thing Severus noted was the strong smell of alcohol. Tobias Snape sat on the couch, and he looked up when he heard the door.

"Severus? What the -"

"You did not attend your wife's funeral," Severus said cooly.

"I was at work!"

"How peculiar that is, when you have been unemployed for the past year."

"You ungrateful brat! Do not take that tone with me! I am your father! I raised you!"

Severus' voice was cold as he levelled his wand at the man. "I have no father."

"You - I - What is the meaning of this? Are you threatening me? How dare you!"

"You killed my mother!"

"She killed herself, foolish boy."

"No!" Severus cried, choking back tears. "You made her kill herself. _You_ made her life a living hell!"

"I did no-"

"I _saw_ you hit her, and scream at her, and-"

"She was a filthy freak, just like you. You say you hate me, but I made the world a better place, cleansing it of filth like her."

Severus was shocked into silence for a few moments before answering. "I never said I hate you. I _do_ hate you, but I never said so. She was a wonderful woman, but above all, she was my mother," he said, his voice beginning to rise. "She was my mother and you _murdered_ her! You never loved her at all, did you? You want to help make the world a better place? Allow me." Severus gripped his wand tightly, his knuckles turning white.

"Wait! Don't you want to know my response? Don't you want to know if your old man could love?" Tobias cried, desperately attempting to find a way out of his awful fate.

"I already know what you'll say," Snape answered, his voice icily cold. "You've told the world enough lies. _Avada Kedavra."_

As his father's body crumpled to the ground, Severus waited for the remorse and guilt to arrive.

They didn't. At least, at the start. He was almost proud of himself, to tell the truth. He had pleased the Dark Lord, and had been granted access to his inner circle, taking the Mark and acting as a spy from inside Hogwarts. The remorse stayed far away until Lily died, until the nightmares started and the feeling of self-importance ended. Then, it came and bled through the cracks in Severus' armor, eating him alive. One day, years after he became a spy so deeply invested in both sides of the war he wasn't sure which was his, he sat with Dumbledore in his office.

"Without you, we would lose the war," Dumbledore said. "You've saved so many people. You can be proud, Severus."

"Without me, so many people would never had needed to be saved," Severus said quietly, as a single tear fell from his eye.

* * *

House: Slytherin

Category: Bonus

Prompts: [Speech] "I never said I hate you. I _do_ hate you, but I never said so."

[Speech] "Wait! Don't you want to know my response?" "I already know what you'll say."

Word Count: 1,133

AU, but I believe this could have fit into Snape's backstory somewhere.


	2. Round Five, Short Story

_A/N: This is written for The Houses Competition._

 _House: Slytherin_

 _Category: Short_

 _Prompt: (Colour) Grey_

 _Word Count: 762 (Including the poem and not including the title)_

* * *

 _ **Of Greys, Whites, and Blacks**_

* * *

 _Once more into the fray,_

 _Into the last good fight I'll ever know,_

 _Live and die on this day,_

 _Live and die on this day,_

 _-The Grey, Jon Treloar_

* * *

HE KILLED his old self, the new him wasn't much better. All he felt was sorrow, every other emotion dismissed from his core. Where there was adoration, euphoria and mirth is a stinging concavity. He was honest, truthful and full of love for her than she could have ever understood. He had been tolerant, sympathetic and placid - yet ostensibly, all that was negated by being too atypical. And people wondered why he hid behind false egotism and overconfidence. All he was, was a man, why hadn't she just see him that way?

His pace hastened, and he struggled to abscond from Godric's Hollow. The night was ominous, and he took quick uneven breaths. His sweaty palms tightened around the jagged material of his wand's hilt. Tears streamed down his face, but he wasn't sure why for all he felt was numbness. The initial shock and denial had worn off and he had set off to his abode, to write a letter to Dumbledore, asking for a meeting, apparition being too much for him at his moment of weakness.

* * *

Dumbledore had responded with a resounding 'yes'. When Severus had received the mail, he had expected to find something more than a 'yes'. Yet again, a 'yes' was more than he deserved. He had written to meet up at a dingy teashop he'd seen on the streets of the dystopia he called home. So, he sat there, almost ten minutes early. He waited for almost an hour and was convinced that Dumbledore had just pulled an insignificant trick when the very man materialized in front of him. Their conversation began with the redundant small talk which Severus abhorred.

Taking a deep breath and mustering all the courage he had, Severus spilled everything he was feeling and everything he wanted to feel. _"I can't live with it. I just can't. Minute by minute, knowing that the death of the one person I loved was because of the one person who I strived to become. I want-, no, I need to do something virtuous, something she would have respected. Please, I'm begging you, take me in. I'll do anything you need, just please"._

Severus had already begged twice as much as he'd anticipated to beg in this lifetime. Dumbledore smiled. He nodded and continued with talk about Hogwarts.

At that moment, as if it were any ordinary query, Dumbledore questioned him, _"Would you be interested in being a teacher at Hogwarts? If you are, all your hearings and your living necessities will be attended to"._

Severus was stunned. He was entirely incredulous. Dumbledore was even superior than he had overheard, certainly, nevertheless, he was also much more foolhardy or reckless than Snape had comprehended. Which sane individual would ever employ an alleged assassin to educate children? Nonetheless, Severus was not one to repudiate such an expedient offer and languidly concurred.

 _"Tell me,"_ he initiated, his eyebrow raised, staring undilutedly into Dumbledore's ageless eyes and asked, _"Why, in the name of Merlin, would you appoint me, a suspected Death-Eater, to teach your children? I've done things that would astound you!"_

Dumbledore only laughed and said, _"Trust me, Severus, you don't alarm me at present."_

Severus swallowed and thanked him, and they recommenced their little repartee. They parted ways after an hour or so and Severus had a revised definition of the direction in which his future was heading.

* * *

Throughout the duration of his dying breaths, Severus's mind kept going around a single memory with Dumbledore, sometime before the wizard had requested Severus to execute him.

 _"Where do I stand?"_ Severus had queried, hoping for an answer of a more positive nature.

Dumbledore replied with, _"Grey."_

Severus scoffed and responded with an additional query, _"Why must you always be so cryptic?"_

 _"If you are clever enough, Severus, you will figure it out,"_ the man retorted, completely dodging the question Severus had posed.

GREY. That word was a mystery that had haunted him almost until he had died, taunting his intellect. All the same, he had definitively figured it out. Dumbledore had substituted the Dark Side with a colour; black and the light side with another colour; white. Severus wanted to embody white but previous macabre decisions and deeds forced him to embody black. Consequently, his conflict made him embody a mixed specimen; grey. Severus Snape died solving the greatest mystery he had encountered; content with where he stood.

 _fin_


End file.
